Friday, December 20, 2019
Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Troubleshot an error message on my iPhone X with iOS 12.4.1: Calendar Invitation: Your response to the invitation cannot be sent. (OK) I think my problem was caused by an inactive SMTP server for Gmail. Continued work on HTML email build: new year greeting. Holiday luncheon at The Slanted Door at the Ferry Building Marketplace with the Plancomm team. Susie drove from Parnassus. Levi and Grant each rode their bikes. James, Eric, and I rode Muni. We shared crispy vegetarian imperial rolls, vegetarian spring rolls, vegetarian banh bot loc (mung bean tapioca dumplings, scallion oil, thai chili soy sauce), yuba cellophane noodles (hodo beanery yuba noodles, roasted chili, sweet peppers, nameko mushroom), lemongrass chicken (red onion, jalapeno, roasted chili paste, roasted peanut), spicy monterey squid (pineapple, sweet red pepper, jalapeno, thai basil), green papaya salad (pickled carrot, rau ram, crispy shallot, roasted peanut), joyful farm baby bok choy (baby shitake mushrooms), jasmine rice. Dessert: pumpkin cremeux, pear sorbet. Afterwards I window shopped on my way to North Beach. Cocktail at Original Joe's (415-775-4877, 601 Union Street): winkelrita: $13 before a $1.50 tip. Patrick met me there and we walked to Beach Blanket Babylon for one of their last shows before closing after 45 years. Tickets for the first row of the balcony (not counting the Magnin box in front of and slightly below us) were $110 each. The show was much the same as I remember from previous visits. There was a small bit about Trump's impeachment, which the House of Representatives had just approved. A new bit about Star Wars was also new to me. During the standing ovation at the end it felt bittersweet as this long-enduring and beloved show comes to the end of a journey. Afterwards Patrick and I dined at Pesce e Riso (415-872-9997, 1224 Grant Avenue): San Benedetto sparkling for Patrick and still for me. Glass of Falanghina for Patrick. Risotto for Patrick, tagliatelle for me. We had also ordered tuna tartare but after receiving our entrees we realized they had forgotten it and so we canceled the order. The manager soon visited our table to apologize and promised us one free dessert for each of us. When we received the bill, the tuna tartare was not on the bill, but they had charged us for one of the two free desserts. We didn't care that much, so we didn't say anything. It's rare that a restaurant owner will apologize for an error much less graciously offer something for free in return. $82.03 before an $18 tip.